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Sahara Conservation Fund

SCF is a dynamic organization with a unique mission: the conservation of the wildlife of the Sahara and its bordering Sahelian grasslands. Our vision is of a Sahara that is well conserved and where ecological processes function naturally, with plants and animals existing in healthy numbers across their historical range; a Sahara that benefits all its inhabitants and where support for its conservation comes from stakeholders across all sectors of society.

The power of partnership

To implement its mission, SCF forges partnerships between people, governments, the world zoo and scientific communities, international conventions, NGOs and donor agencies. People working together with a common goal: the conservation of deserts and their unique natural and cultural heritage. With barely a whisper from the international community, Saharan wildlife is rapidly disappearing. Once abundant antelopes and gazelles, desert-living tortoises, ostrich and cheetah are all threatened with extinction. SCF was created specifically to address this crisis.With many species at the brink of extinction, SCF’s top priority is saving what remains. It is vital to get resources into the field and create positive incentives to conserve. Campaigning vigorously against unsustainable use, SCF strives to find solutions that will allow people to draw benefit from their natural resources without compromising their long-term survival. Deserts are not barren wastelands. They are geographically spectacular, culturally rich, and home to an amazing array of exquisitely-adapted plants and animals, many of which require urgent attention. SCF works to dispel the ignorance surrounding deserts, to raise awareness of the extinction crisis facing many species, and to mobilize support for desert conservation. Thanks to zoos and private collections, the scimitar-horned oryx would be extinct. In an environment of growing commitment, and with an impressive number of dedicated partners, SCF is actively involved in the restoration of desert wildlife to places from which it disappeared long ago. In all its work, SCF adopts a science-based approach based on the best available information and expertise.

Projects:

The Termit and Tin Toumma regions of eastern Niger are the last remaining strongholds in the entire Sahara for a whole suite of threatened desert species, including the addax, dama gazelle, Barbary sheep and desert cheetah. The addax population found there is the largest remaining on earth and the survival of the species very much depends on efforts to protect and manage the area. With its partners, SCF has been working for nearly a decade to establish a vast new protected area whose management will benefit both wildlife and local nomadic people through improved habitat use and the development amongst others of appropriate ecotourism. These efforts were crowned on March 6, 2012, when Niger formally gazetted the Termit & Tin Toumma National Nature Reserve. At 100,000 square kilometres (38,610 sq. miles) the reserve is one of the biggest in Africa.